


the five times grant ward was shot and the one time he wasn't

by almostfamousgrl



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Blood, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:17:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2813330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostfamousgrl/pseuds/almostfamousgrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>grant ward is used to taking punishment</p>
            </blockquote>





	the five times grant ward was shot and the one time he wasn't

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for aosexchange on tumblr! the prompt simply asked for whump featuring grant ward and i pretty much just ran with that. happy holidays my dear mystery prompter! <3

1.

Thomas shoots Christian with his BB gun on accident.

It’s the kind of thing most brothers would laugh off as funny.

Christian spends the rest of the week shooting at him with the BB gun whenever he can. He doesn’t do it in front of mother, because he knows she’d stop him. Nothing can touch her precious little boy. But he finds plenty of opportunities.

Thomas cries the third time he’s hit and so Grant steps between him and Christian. Christian raises an eyebrow and smiles.

He shoots twice as much and gets twice as close but Grant doesn’t move. He’s covered in little red marks for a couple of days afterwards. When father asks about them he just shrugs.

He gets beat that night for being disrespectful.

At least Thomas is safe.

 

2.

Garrett tells him he needs to toughen up. The first thought that passes through his head is ‘isn’t that what abandoning me in the woods was about’ but he’s learned to hold his tongue.

“You have to be able to think through the pain. You gotta learn to get up and keep going. So this is gonna hurt like hell, but it’s worth it alright?” Ward just nods and steadies himself on his feet. The vest is tight and makes him feel like he can’t take a full breath.

Garrett levels the gun and stars at him down the sights. It’s a small caliber pistol, but apparently they’re going to work their way up to bigger rounds.

Ward stares back at him. “Ready?” He nods. He’s as ready as he’ll ever be. He watches Garrett breathe and steady his gun, the same way he taught Ward a month ago.

The crack is deafening and it feels like getting punched in the chest. He staggers back but he doesn’t fall. Garrett hoots. “Like a champ. Soon you won’t even take a step. Like the goddamn Terminator.”

Ward rolls his shoulders and nods. He can take a little pain, if that’s what he needs to do.

 

3.

On his third official mission for SHIELD and his first solo mission he gets hit making a run for the extraction point. It goes through his shoulder, clean in and out the other side. He swears and it burns like hell but he knows he can’t stop.

He keeps running and doesn’t think about it again until he’s in the helicopter. He watches it ooze and thinks about how it isn’t as bad as everyone says. Maybe that says more about him than everyone else.

When they patch him up the medical officers pat him on the back. First official wound on the job. It doesn’t seem like much but he nods along and smiles. They stitch it closed and bandage it.

They don’t tell you that it makes your whole shoulder sore. He feels like his stance is off when he goes to the range. He doesn’t say anything to Garrett. Just gets used to the shift.

Eventually it heals and things feel like they’re back to normal. He’s taken a bullet now. He feels like somewhere that means he made Garrett proud.

 

4.

Before he even hears of Coulson’s team he almost dies. It’s a particularly dangerous mission in a particularly volatile part of the world and he takes two in his gut.

It’s like nothing he’s felt before, hot metal tearing through his insides. He touches the sticky wet blood as it soaks through his t-shirt and it sends his brain into panic mode. He takes off running and keeps running even when his body screams for him to stop.

He only gets out thanks to adrenaline and luck and as soon as he sees his team he blacks out.

When he comes to the medical team tells him he’s a lucky son of a bitch that the bullets didn’t hit anything vital. He’s got two wounds near his right hip. They’re stitched up neatly but there’s no doubt they’ll scar.

He’ll keep those scars for the rest of his life. Add them to the faint cigarette burns on his arm from his parents, the slice on his foot and the other one on his shoulder from accidents while he was alone in the woods, and the matching bullet wound on his shoulder from years before.

In a strange way he likes the scars. They remind him of how far he’s come.

 

5.

When Ward tells Skye to hang back, he doesn’t mean to insult her.

Skye is more dangerous than he ever gave her credit for. That’s part training and part vicious instinct and a good agent needs both. She’s a good agent now, there’s no questioning that.

But they’re in deep shit with this obelisk and Ward knows that this is the best chance at making it out. His only thoughts are about keeping Skye away from that thing and whatever her father thinks it will do to her.

Skye has other plans.

He’s thought about taking bullets for her before but he didn’t imagine it like this. He tries to laugh but his side aches. He keeps his hands against the wound trying his best to put pressure on it but he doesn’t have much hope.

His back was turned. Idly he wonders why she didn’t put two in his head. It would have been cleaner, set him out of her way permanently. Four in the side just seemed cruel. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe she wants him to suffer.

After everything he did he deserves to suffer.

Garret always said she’d be his downfall. He never thought about it being so literal.

 

6.

He’s sure when Agent 33 returns, that he’s done. She’s got no reason to trust him no reason to do anything other than put one between his eyes and move on.

He hadn’t counted on Whitehall being dead.

It makes convincing her a lot easier.

She hauls him up and he tries not to rest too much of his weight on her but he doesn’t have much of a choice.

They make it out quietly amidst the chaos. She steals a car from the lot and they drive. He doesn’t know where she’s going and he doesn’t bother to ask.

He knows how she’s feeling. The hollowed out emptiness of seeing the only person who mattered to you lying cold and dead on the floor. Wondering what you’re supposed to do now, watching everyone else go on like it’s nothing while you’re just…stuck.

He looks at her face; May’s face. It’s more pained than he’s ever seen May.

“I’m sorry. About what happened.”

She doesn’t say anything.

That’s a little more like May.

“We can fix that face. Once we…” he touches a hand to his still bleeding side. “Find somewhere to stop.”

“We’ll stitch you up first,” she says, her tone still robotic and flat. But he’s grateful. His hands are sticky with dried blood and his shirt is soaked through and his head hurts like hell. He leans it back against the headrest and closes his eyes.

“Thanks for not shooting me.”

She’s quiet for a minute. He opens his eyes to look at her and takes a slow agonizing breath. His heart is pounding in his ears.

“Thanks for understanding.” She doesn’t look at him but he must make another pained sound. “We’ll be there soon. We can patch you up before we get on the road again. I want as much distance between me and SHIELD as I can get.”

Ward thinks about Skye and the look in her eyes when she pulled the trigger.

He couldn’t agree more.


End file.
